The Waiting Light
by Kirabaros
Summary: Sam and Dean are on a job and Angela stays behind for obvious reasons aka a little bundle of joy in two months. However there is a benefit in that she will always be that light waiting for them to come home. Tag to The One You've Been Waiting For.


**The Waiting Light**

It is said that patience is a virtue and by every right it should be. Patience was what was required when faced with the most serious of missions and it could even be extended to things that required much attention to detail. In short it was a virtue especially when you were faced with the reality that there were things you couldn't really do anymore especially if it was something you had done most of your entire life.

Angela looked up at the clock that she made Dean hang up in the main hall where the work tables were. She actually had him hang them up everywhere. Her excuse was that there were no windows for her to look out at the sun and the shadows in the bunker but in truth, it was a weird sort of comfort that she could count the hours until they came home. To some it was torture but it helped her get through the day as she started teaching herself to be more domestic.

It was a choice and one she acknowledged because in a couple of months she was going to be a mother and she realized she couldn't be doing the things she once did. That was the hard part since she had always said she would take care of it and all it was could end up being something that would scare a normal person and have Sam and Dean thinking she was crazy even though they had seen her do it enough times to not be that freaked out. Things she had a pleasure in she had to reevaluate and change since now it was more than her life on the line.

It wasn't too hard to be domestic. She was the one that, as Dean put it, took care of them with the cooking, cleaning and laundry but they were still hunters and on the move even with the bunker as a base of operations. So it wasn't too bad since she knew how to do that. It was just not including the daily workout routine which included having Wilder pups play attack you and performing training regimens what would have given Sam a heart attack if he saw what she did.

She contemplated fielding queries for hunters since she didn't want to feel useless though Sam and Dean insisted that she was anything but that. The upside was that it would give her and Sherlock something to do since he had just about catalogued and sorted everything in that library ten times over and Gabriel helped on occasion. It was something to think about once the baby was born and she didn't feel like a beached whale. At the moment she was keeping the home fires burning until the boys returned from another job and one that brought about some rather painful memories.

Dean had found the job where an antique dealer and a rich old lady were torched to death and in a spontaneous combustion type of way. At the time he was still being a bit of an ass because Mary left them. Angela had to admit he had gotten better but being the stubborn ass of a Winchester he was, he still was adverse to talking about things until it became too much. Then he came to her or he actually talked to Sherlock or Kesset or someone he trusted enough. It was better than nothing she thought.

Anyway it sounded grossly familiar and when Dean described it, she got that ominous feeling in the pit of her stomach. It was enough for her to inspect their gear after they did and loaded it up just for her own peace of mind. It didn't fool Sam since he was well aware that this was the first time she was being left behind and this time by choice and for her own good. He let her inspect and fuss until she was satisfied enough to let them go, giving her a kiss on the cheek and blowing his breath gently across the left side of her neck. Dean was another story.

Dean fussed at her fussing no matter what it was. For years their whole battle was over his laundry system, specifically his socks. She insisted on washing them and him wearing a clean pair every day and he spouted back that he had a system and it worked. So when she fussed over his gear, he fussed right back stating he had a system for his stuff and that she needed to stop messing with it. He was his usual gruff manner and she was used to it but she couldn't help but let out a fat couple of tears and she cursed her hormones. In the end they kissed and made up and Dean let her give him an extra tousle to his hair and they left with their dogs in tow and her parting 'be careful' on her lips.

The feeling didn't go away as she went about doing chores like keeping the bunker clean. She nearly had Gabriel freak out and he snatched a box of blades she had pulled out of a closet to have Sherlock check for curses and to clean them. He became more freaked out when she tried to get into the gun case and cited that she was being crazy for touching dangerous stuff. She tried not to huff at it since there were a couple of poisoned blades and Gabriel decided to clean the guns that didn't make it into the duffle himself but she did get some laughs out of it and she ended up yelling at them both for treating her like chinaware. That only resulted in her shorting out a couple of lightbulbs with her temper, which she had to replace.

The phone call was a welcome relief and she said that she couldn't wait for them to get back since she was ready to kill the librarian and his prepubescent angel helper. It produced laughs from Sam and Dean and it made her feel better plus they also asked her a couple of questions and she figured it out that the Thule were back in business and it only made that nasty feeling come back and in full force. It made her anxious enough that she was desperate to use a viewing stone that she had found when they first came to the bunker and hid once she realized what it was. As it turned out, she didn't have to.

She didn't know if it was her or Sam or both, any option was plausible, but she ended up seeing what Sam was seeing as they came face to face with the resurrected Hitler. It made her blood boil the moment she heard the words and the demeanor. It made her angry enough that she blew out another couple of bulbs and it caught the attention of Gabriel. It made her angry enough that she just reacted.

She had promised not to play with her spirit shamaness warrior thing since the last time gave Sam and Dean a scare with the whole British Men of Letters thing. Yet, she couldn't let this go. She wasn't sure how she did it but the moment Gabriel touched her shoulder, she found her spiritual body in that hangar with the Winchesters. She could also see a girl on a gurney looking very loopy like she was on drugs and more members of the Thule were around. She rounded on Hitler and looked at him.

His appearance was different yes but she knew it was his soul in that body of his Nazi necromancer. She remembered when she first met him in 1939 with the invasion of Poland. She had gone to that country in search of an artifact for the Centurion mostly because it was of that madman's rise to power. Several analysts within the order had been paying attention to the world news and they insisted that she remove it before he discovered it. That… came at the cost of a country being overrun by German troops and war occurring.

Angela couldn't help herself and helped the Winchesters once the girl got a hold of the gun and shot one of the Thule. She made herself visible long enough to give Hitler a good scare. She was certain he would remember the she-devil that he encountered when he invaded Poland. It was brief but enough and she was gone by the time Dean took care of the rest and she was back in her body and looking at Gabriel who was looking at a cross between upset and freaked out.

"Cat, that was the stupidest thing you ever did," he started screaming.

"Like you're one to talk," was all she said as she stood up with a satisfied smirk and went towards the kitchen.

Afterwards it was more of the bickering and Angela reminding Gabriel that he was under her roof and therefore her rules that he had to obey otherwise he could try on his own. It certainly had him pout for the remainder of the time there when he did what she asked. It certainly made her laugh when he oh so reluctantly ate his vegetables otherwise he wouldn't get any dessert. It was hilarious since he was an angel and could undermine her authority but he didn't since he didn't want to suffer her wrath since she had already destroyed more than a couple of lightbulbs, a thing he considered minor since she could have easily destroyed the library and driven Sherlock mad. Or happy since he was happiest when sorting and cataloguing.

Angela took it in a stride and went out keeping the bunker clean and anticipating when her boys would be home. Since it was a couple days drive, she had a couple of days to further get used to the fact that she was going to be here in the bunker for the long run. It wasn't too bad though as she finished what she was doing in the kitchen and when to the main hall to the chair that Castiel had brought for her. It was intended to rock a baby to sleep but it was more comfortable than any other chair other than the sleeping chair and it gave her a good view of the entrance since she was still wary about the Men of Letters returning despite the extra precautions she took.

Sitting down, she reached over into the basket she kept and pulled out a project she had started and was sort of a tradition since the day one of her strays had a baby of their own. She just never thought that one day she would be doing it for her own and she contemplated this as she looked over the other day's previous stitches and fingering the softest wools she had been able to acquire. She looked at the patterning she had already done and anticipated when it would be finished. Smiling, she picked up her knitting needles and continued to work while she waited.

~0~0~0~0~

The job was done and the Winchesters were heading back to the bunker, back to home. To each brother, there was a certain amount of curiosity as well as trepidation since this was a first in a very long time that they didn't have the constant in their lives with them. They agreed it was a good thing but it was something that needed to take time to get used to. Except this first time wasn't without a few questionable things.

The check in phone call was funny enough with Gabriel complaining like a teenager, and in fact he was, about what Angela had been doing and that she was a tyrant and that Sherlock was being mean. In the background was Angela saying that he was being overdramatic and she didn't sound fazed at all when Gabriel moaned and groaned at her. It was even more hilarious when Sherlock actually begged them to hurry it up since she was doing things to his cataloguing system and on purpose.

Dean thought it was just his girl getting bored and she was amusing herself. He ended up being a little mean and called it nesting as the baby books said. Yeah he read a couple and kept it in mind now that it was getting closer to that time and he did notice she was a little more emotional. Sam, on the other hand, worried like an old woman over the fact that there was some merit to their complaints since she was the type to do 'chores' and that included things like cleaning knives and guns and occasionally dealing with laundry though the last one wasn't a big deal. So it had them a little anxious and curious as to the state of home would be.

It didn't get any easier when Dean pulled the Impala into the garage and parked her next to Deanna. He looked at the other car and made a note to get her tuned up and looked at. He loved his sweetheart but he also had a soft spot for the car that had saved their collective asses time and again. There was truth to that adage that if you treat your ride right, she would treat you right or the what goes around comes around thing to the point that karma was a bitch. It did give Dean something to smirk at as he watched his younger brother try to be calm and cool about this.

If they expected to find a state of chaos in the bunker, they were in for disappointment. Rather, the bunker looked like it had undergone a cleaning that it hadn't seen since they moved in. Dean swore he could smell cleanser all over the place that it had him wonder if the asshole librarian put up a quarantine zone to protect their resources. It certainly was clean enough that it would qualify as a clean room and it certainly was proven when the puppies came trotting up, yipping at their sibling Keiko and Shadow in greeting.

Dean took a look at them and then at Sam and said, "Dude, she washed the dogs too."

It was evident since the female puppies had been given ribbons for their collars and the males had bow ties. It had them wondering if their girl went crazy or overboard or she did it to amuse herself and because they were puppies and they loved their alpha, they did it happily. It certainly made him, Sam and Keiko and Shadow seem like dirty street urchins and it had them feeling like they had to take off their shoes cause if they tracked mud in then they were in trouble. Dean was prepared for a laugh but also to run just in case as he and Sam followed the pack of puppies that still were not imprinted to where she was waiting.

Dean long gave up the idea of a domestic life. True he had tried it and still had a thing going with Haley but he never felt that it was for him and part of that was at the time he didn't have everyone that meant something in his life there with him. Now that they had the bunker to call home, he could get used to it and he liked the constant battles between him and Angela over the kitchen since they both liked to cook and he ended up being the sorcerer's apprentice again in that regard. So it wasn't too much of a shock and yet it was to walk in to find Angela sitting in a rocking chair and knitting while Gideon, her dog, was at her feet lounging but ever alert.

It certainly was fun to watch the relief pour into Sam's features even though he didn't show it much. For Dean, this was excellent blackmail material but then again he knew his brother would always be the overprotective watchdog with their girl and even more so when the newest addition came. He wasn't saying that he wouldn't be the same, he would. Just not that much.

Looking at his girl, Dean grinned and said, "Looks like the place is still standing."

"My house. My rules. Let's not confuse things," she replied with a smile and put away her knitting to stand and greet them both with a hug.

Dean was not willing to argue on that and neither was Sam. Both had seen what she could do and it was evident with Gabriel passed out over a book he had been reading and making notes on. She made the angel do homework. That was a new one and already confirmed to Dean that she would be a great mom. He gave her a hug, still not used to feeling the baby bump and replied, "Not arguing with that considering you made the little guy over there do homework."

"He has a lesson with Sherlock."

It sounded so weird and yet it was their normal. Dean wasn't complaining especially when he went into the kitchen to find that she had baked pie and quite a bit of it. He almost wanted to grab her in a hug when he discovered she had made her peach cobbler and if he checked the freezer, the ice cream was there for a la mode. Looking at the pie, Dean then took a look around the kitchen and noted that she had made him and Sam a meal just in case they came in late. She thought of everything.

"I figured the guy who killed Hitler deserved something special."

Dean turned to see Angela in the doorway of the kitchen grinning at him. He raised his brow, "How do you know that?"

Angela gave a shrug and replied, "Ways and means."

"I wish you two didn't do that," Dean pouted but not really meaning it. He couldn't pout anyway when Angela came close enough to rub his head like she always did.

"Why not? Comes in handy don't you think?"

Dean couldn't deny that it did come in handy even if it was done sparingly if a word could be put to it. He made a slight face but it turned into a grin since he really wasn't mad. "Yeah and you're always right on that note Angie." He looked around and teased, "Nesting?"

"Bored out of my skull," she replied with a grin.

Dean wasn't fooled by that. She probably was anxious. He hadn't missed the signs when she insisted on checking his gear along with Sam's and he felt like an ass for making her cry when he teased her as usual. "Still it's nice. Nice to come home to a well cooked meal and pie."

"Cobbler is not pie."

"Whatever. You know what I mean."

Dean couldn't help but smile when he heard her give that genuine chuckle that meant she was happy. Sam may get the giggle and the laugh but he got the chuckle. He gave one in return and looked at her. "It is nice Angie. I know that… that you are probably not liking it that you're not out there with us but… It did help know that you and the kid are safe here."

Dean looked at her but she didn't say anything. No doubt she was letting the words sink in. He knew it was her choice to stay behind and with good reason and he agreed. Now that he was going to become an uncle, it made him more determined to keep him and Sam out of trouble and to make sure that nothing bad would happen to her and the kid. Shuffling a bit on his feet he added, "To be honest, I know that you're Sam's girl and all but… it gives me something to look forward to you know. I mean when the kid comes and…"

Dean was surprised when he was enveloped in a hug. He was not a hugger by nature unless he was overwhelmed with emotion and broke form and engaged in chick flick moments but he always welcomed a hug from her. It surprised him and he could really feel the baby bump since she insisted on the bear hug but he relaxed and hugged her back. He didn't want to let go when she broke it but he let her.

"Then I'll be here waiting for you both to come home," she said. "And I'll never leave you. You know that."

How could Dean forget that? It was actually an unspoken thing and then it became a promise. She would never leave him or Sam willingly and would fight tooth and nail for them yes. Yet she would also wait for them; she would wait for them to come home like a light being left on to greet them when they came.

* * *

 **A/N:** Angie is more or less left behind while Sam and Dean take on a job. It's not easy to get used to but she aims to always be waiting for them. Tag to The One You've Been Waiting For. Enjoy!


End file.
